Posts Tagged ‘Tools’

My favorite online dictionary

By Karyn Dubravetz

Hello, my fellow Russian students! I had much to be thankful for over the holiday. But apparently “extra time for blogging” wasn’t one of them!!

One thing I am thankful for however, is my favorite online Russian-English dictionary, ABBYY Online. I was first turned on to this site when I was studying at Middlebury and had a ton of reading to do – what a time saver! One thing I really like about it is that there is no need to select which is the target language and which is the source language. If you type a word in English, it automatically gives you the Russian definition and vice versa. Some sites require you to choose the languages from a dropdown every time you look up a word, which is a pain. This feature makes it easy to copy a word from the Russian definition, and paste it in to get the English equivilant.

ABBYY Lingvo

Like other online dictionaries, Lingvo includes an on-screen keyboard if you need to enter the search word in Russian. I also use this as shortcut (actually, it’s more of a longcut) for getting the Cyrillic alphabet when I’m not on my home computer.

Apparently ABBYY Lingvo also offers dictionaries and software for sale, but unfortunately for them, their online version is so great, I’ve never had the need to purchase anything! My guess is that the for-sale products are good, as well.

Has anyone found any other online dictionaries that you like? Please share!

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This entry was posted on December 3rd, 2009 under Uncategorized.

Google Tools, Continued

By Karyn Dubravetz

In my last post, I wrote about 2 great Google tools that will be very helpful to the Russian student.

And now for the last three tools: (1) Search other languages, (2) Translate text, web page or document, and (3) Make your website available in other languages. Remember – just like the first two tools, you may need to download Google Tools in order to use them.

Search Other Languages

What it is: Want to search the web for pages written in Russian, but don’t have Russian font capability (or don’t know the Russian word for what you’re searching for)? All you do is type the word in English and Google will translate your word into Russian and perform the search. Results are displayed in their original Russian, as well as the ir translated English versions.

How to get it: Go to Google’s “Translated Search” page. From there, just choose your options!

Translate Text, Web Page or Document

What it is: This one’s pretty basic. It’s a free translator. It will translate a few words, a whole web page, or an uploaded document. As always, beware of automatic translations, like these. You’ll get the meaning of what you’re translating, but these programs are not putting any human translators out of business.

How to get it: From the Google translate page, type or paste into the empty box the text that you’d like to have translated. Or you can upload a document. Choose the source and the target language and click “translate”. Voila!

Make Your Website Available in Other Languages

What it is: Okay, now I’m getting in a little over my own head. This tool gives you an easy way for your website reader to translate your page into a variety of languages, via a button on your site.

How to get it: The Google Translate page provides a snippet of code that you can paste into the code for your website. I am no web designer, so I haven’t yet tried this one out myself, but it looks easy enough to use.  If I ever get caught up on writing posts for my blog, maybe I’ll try this one out!

Has anyone tried any of these tools out yet? What do you think??

Related post: “2 Google Tools for the Foreign Language Student”

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This entry was posted on November 15th, 2009 under Uncategorized.

2 Google Tools for the Foreign Language Student

By Karyn Dubravetz

As I was doing a little research for my Мишка post, I discovered some pretty exciting Google tools and wanted to share! Along with the instructions below, they can all also be found at www.translate.google.com.

You will need to download the Google Toolbar. If you don’t already have it, you can get it here.

I don’t want to overwhelm you with too many tools at once, so I am going to start out with what I think are the best two: (1) Translate words instantly with no clicks, and (2) One-click translation from your browser’s toolbar. We’ll get to the rest in a later post.

Translate words instantly with no clicks

What it is: This is definitely the most exciting of my recent language tool discoveries! Whenever you pause your cursor over an English word, the Russian definition will automatically pop up in a tiny window without the need to navigate to another page! 

How to get it:

  1. Once Google Tools is installed (do that here for free!): on your new Google Toolbar, click the down arrow next to the wrench icon for “Adjust Toolbar Options”.
  2. Click “Options”.
  3. Click on the “Tools” tab.  
  4. Under “Tools” scroll down to “Translate”.
  5. Click the plus sign to see your options.
  6. From there, check the box next to “Translate English words by hovering over them”. Set the translation language to Russian.
  7. You might as well click the box next to “Offer page translations when a web page is not in English”. This will apply to the next tool. 
  8. Once you have adjusted these settings you’re all set and should start seeing the Russian translations. If you ever want to turn it off, simply uncheck the “Word Translator” box under “Translate” on the toolbar.

One-click translation from your browser’s toolbar (Translate this page)

What it is: This one is sort of self-explanatory. With one click, you can view a Russian webpage in English. This is great to use when you are totally lost and confused about what you are looking at. But it’s a crutch. Don’t use it all the time. We’re trying to learn how to walk run here, right?

How to get it: Follow all steps of the instructions above, except for step 6. Then, when you wind up on a webpage written in Russian, a bar will appear at the top of the page with a button to “Translate”. Click it. Just be careful about clicking “Always Translate Russian”. You (probably) at least want to have the option to try to figure it out yourself.

These are the first 2 of several tools. Stay tuned for the rest.

If you’ve tried these tools, please comment to let us know how you like them! I am loving the instant English-to-Russian translations!

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This entry was posted on November 8th, 2009 under Tools, Uncategorized.

The best dictionary ever

By Karyn Dubravetz

I’m always on the look-out for some good books to help me learn some Russian. One of my favorites is “A Phrase and Sentence Dictionary of Spoken Russian” (Dover Publications).

Dictionary of Spoken Russian

It’s not very comprehensive, so it’s best for beginners. But I don’t consider myself a beginner and I use it all the time.  For every entry, there is a short definition, followed by a few sentences so you can see the word in action! Even for advanced students this can be a lot easier than trying to make sense of phrases like “что на что кому чего” that are given in most dictionaries.

If you like the smell of used books as much as I do, pick up a copy for under $5.00 at Amazon.com. (New copies also available.)

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This entry was posted on October 23rd, 2009 under Dictionaries, References.

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